The result leaves Howe’s men nine points clear of the drop zone, while the Swans are one place and three points above the bottom three.

“We knew the importance of the two games we had, the West Ham game (a 3-2 victory last week) and the Swansea game today,” Howe told BT Sport.

“I’m really pleased with how the players responded to that challenge. We hadn’t won for a long time so the West Ham game gave us a real confidence boost. I think that showed again today.

“We’re not feeling we’re safe or we’ve achieved anything at this moment in time. The standard we set at the start of the season was to try and improve on last season. That’s still the case, I still think we’ve got a long way to go.”